Call for Papers – Disruption

Call for papers

The editors of Makings – an open-access, peer-reviewed journal on the cultural and creative industries – invite researchers at all stages, including PhD, MA, and BA students, to submit 300-word abstracts for the journal’s next issue, themed “Disruption”

This year’s theme, it seems, best explains our collective experience given the disturbing effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Along with other major disruptive changes – Brexit, the climate crisis, blockchain economics, to name a few – it has had an immense influence on arguably all areas of our life; and the cultural and creative industries (CCIs) are not an exception (OECD, 2020; Casadei, 2021; Deloitte, 2021). CCIs are known to be vulnerable with glaring features of precarious work conditions, signs of systemic issues, which have been exposed by the Covid-19 disruption (Comunian and England, 2020). As the pandemic eases, there have been talks of the “new normal”, the suggestion being that creative practitioners are to return to the pre-Covid state of affairs defined by instability, vulnerability, and precarity. A different way of viewing this is to see the present disruption as likely to cause lasting and wide-ranging structural changes, with the potential for more unsettling realities across creative sectors.  

Cardinal amongst these changes is the use of digital technology, which has largely been celebrated. We note, however, the need to critique the nature, conditions, consequences, and power relations evident in the shift to online and hybrid delivery of creative content. Even before the pandemic, technology represented a major source of disruption within CCIs. Cinema is an illustrative example here – the digital revolution embodied by players such as Netflix has challenged the value chain set-up and traditional means of operation in the sector (Salvador et al., 2019). In this sense, disruption happens when a “new logic” captures the core of an industry, presenting opportunities for some and obstacles for others (Skog et al., 2018, p. 436).  

It is important to emphasise that such disruptions are felt not only at an industry or sector level but also by individual creative workers and businesses. In this thematic issue, therefore, we would like to explore the diverse “disrupted realities” of working within the creative, media, and cultural industries both at the micro level (involving sole players in the creative industries) and/or the macro (involving organisations and supporting institutions)We invite abstract proposals that critique disruption in the cultural and creative industries, including in film, music, craft, fashion, theatre, cinema. We are interested in a range of topics, including but not limited to:  

  • Disruption and the cultural and creative industries 
  • Pandemic disruption
  • Disrupted past, present, and future
  • The nature, conditions, and consequences of disruption
  • The response of creative workers to disruption
  • Creative labour, precarity, and disruption 
  • Climate disruption
  • Technological/digital disruption in CCIs

We are also interested in conceptual reflections from traditional and practice-based researchers on various ideas of and approaches to disruption in the creative industries.  

The topics we have highlighted are by no means exhaustive; and we welcome any other proposals that deal with disruption and the creative industries.

The deadline for 300-word abstracts is 26 November 2021. Along with the abstract, please add a short bio, including your name, institution (if appropriate) and contact email.

The decision on the abstracts will be communicated by December 2021 and the full submissions (up to 6000 words) will be expected by March-April 2022. All submissions will go through a double-blind peer-review process.

Please check contributor guidelines for more details.

Alongside journal articles, we also welcome shorter think-pieces, observations, and experimental works up to 500-1000 words or in the form of write-ups, podcasts, videos, images etc., which will be published in the Studio section of the journal. If you are interested, please send across an abstract and bio as normal indicating a preferred format of your proposed contribution.

Please submit your abstracts (with bios) or any questions you have to the editors:

Kateryna Sivak at kateryna.sivak@mail.bcu.ac.uk
Vincent Obia at vincent.obia@mail.bcu.ac.uk

 

 

References

Baumann, S. (2020) Guest Editor’s Introduction: Strategic Media Management at a Junction. Journal of Media Business Studies, 17 (1), pp. 1-12. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1080/16522354.2020.1740564

Casadei, P. (2021) The Brexit Shock in the UK’s Fashion and Textile Industry. PEC, 31 March. Available at: https://pec.ac.uk/blog/the-brexit-shock-in-the-uks-fashion-and-textile-industry

Comunian, R. and England, L. (2020) Creative and cultural work without filters: Covid-19 and exposed precarity in the creative economy. Cultural Trends, 29(2), pp. 112-128. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/09548963.2020.1770577

Deloitte (2021) The Future of the Creative Economy: A Report by Deloitte. [pdf] Available through: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/technology-media-telecommunications/deloitte-uk-future-creative-economy-report-final.pdf

Kilkki, K., Mäntylä, M., Karhu, K., Hämmäinen, H. and Ailisto, H. (2018) A Disruption Framework. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 129, pp. 275-284. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2017.09.034

PEC (2020) Insights from our Industry Champions: Business Model Disruption and Innovation during COVID-19 in the Creative Content Industries. PEC. [pdf] Available through: https://www.pec.ac.uk/assets/publications/Industry-insights-write-up-Business-model-innovation.pdf

Salvador, E., Simon, J. and Benghozi, P. (2019) Facing disruption: the cinema value chain in the digital age. International Journal of Arts Management, 22(1), pp. 25-40. Available at: https://www.proquest.com/docview/2313054235

Skog, D.A., Wimelius, H. and Sandberg, J. (2018) Digital disruption. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 60, pp. 431-437. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-018-0550-4

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